Young Journalist Remembered in Camagüey

January 17, 2024

Like a family, the journalism guild in the province of Camagüey said farewell at the Casa de la Prensa in this city to Yurislenia Pardo Ortega, who passed away on Monday, January 15.

In times of sorrow the blank page cannot remain empty, several colleagues agreed, and from her youth she taught us to breathe deeply and move forward—she who was president of the Union of Journalists of Cuba (Upec) in this jurisdiction, with unmatched courage and optimism.

There is no path in Camagüey that has not been transformed by her steps, there is no heart in this Agramonte land that is not devastated by her sudden departure.

Ricardo Ronquillo Bello, national president of Upec and part of the executive board of the aforementioned organization, attended the memorial ceremony.

The best way to honor you is being like you and maintaining your legacy in a profession that meant so much to you, where you converted individual achievements into collective ones because that is how simple and immense you were, Ronquillo Bello expressed about Yurislenia.

When she graduated she started in radio because it was the dream of her life, then she was a tireless reporter for the newspaper Adelante, and at 35 years old she was capable of doing so many things and touching so many hearts, said Daicar Saladrigas González, director of the Agramonte newspaper.

At Adelante there is an enormous void, she added, but we must continue for her, we must keep Yuri's best virtues with us forever.

A deep sadness overwhelms us, saying goodbye to the mother, the daughter, the wife, the sister, the friend, the president, the journalist, the remarkable woman, it hurts to the core.

Today each family, friend, student, teacher, colleague or acquaintance came to the Casa de la Prensa with a flower, those flowers that showed the liveliness and the smile, as delicate and beautiful as Yuri was.

It seems like it was only yesterday when the teenager, Yurislenia Pardo Ortega, led the student assemblies of the vast Agramonte plains. This profession of writer, for 22 consecutive years, was given to me over and over again, dressed with "stature" and with an enviable maturity for her very young age.

It is no wonder that once, a little schoolmate, jokingly, compared her to "elderly people," which made her more than blush, jump up: "I am just like you, the same age," replied Yuri, —as we will always affectionately call her—, while other boys and girls applauded her and in massive congratulation chanted to her, "Yuri is our FEEM president." The votes ratified her, for several years, as their undisputed representative.

Those passages of pure youthful spirit will not be erased from me, at least for a hundred years, as the saying goes around here. Damara, Simón, Sutil, Conde and Yolo, are four beloved "teachers" who watched her grow from an active, creative and responsible girl, to a loyal and cheerful young woman, from young woman to an optimistic and daring woman, and to a devoted and loving daughter, from woman to an ethical, profound, controversial professional committed to Cuba, and from journalist to an all-around spectacular mother… They will not let me lie.

I review those meetings of the Union of Communist Youth, while in my memory remained trapped the image of when the theater "came down," because Yuri demanded tirelessly from Julito, the first party secretary of that time, that students had to be listened to from "beginning to end," while the applause and exclamations of all those present, including those from the presidency, confirmed to her that the daring and determined Yuri, and outspoken, had more than enough reason.

Then the girl's sure and confident steps through the halls of the Agramonte university catapulted her as one of those young people who even while sleeping never stopped smiling and sparkling with optimism. That quality was more than her motto for convening, a natural gift that allowed her to succeed and drag along even the grumpiest, the most experienced or the most tired. Our guild of legendary and daring reporter teachers, and of young people also risky and hardworking, know that I speak the truth, that I do not exaggerate.

Simply in Yuri the barriers of the stadium of the soul, which tend to become entrenched over the years lived, crumbled like a house of cards, before her proverbial and authentic call: "but girl!, boy!, teacher!, where are you that I don't see you? Family, I am waiting for you here." No one, not even the oldest, escaped her spontaneous invitation.

Today, life, in its cruelest facet, has taken from us our Yuri, our colleague and friend with barely 35 springs completed. That girl with her example calls us from this fateful January 15 toward the future, her optimism will accompany us to overcome challenges and obstacles, and as leader of the Agramonte reporting team she left us the doing, the knowing, the adding and multiplying over having. She anchored herself with beauty and mastery in the word, in the verb committed to Cuba and to the best of the human being; humanism.

Yuri, you will always be present, for what you sowed and achieved, and in first person for your cyclopic conduct in modesty. We swear this Tuesday from the Casa de la Prensa where the entire guild came to "say goodbye" to you. You were a woman with the soul of a flower, with a giant legacy of love. Thank you for so much!